After an initial consideration of Greenville Avenue, Austin's Houndstooth Coffee has settled on a surprising, exciting location for its first branch in Dallas: Henderson Avenue. Specifically, Houndstooth will go into the space currently occupied by Pearl Cup Coffee, whose lease is up at the end of December.

"We signed a lease couple weeks ago, and we'll be opening in the spring," confirmed owner Sean Henry. "I'm super stoked for the location. We're excited about what they're doing with the whole street."

Landing Houndstooth on Henderson was a coup for landlord Mark Masinter, who is dedicating his efforts to make Henderson Avenue a vibrant thoroughfare for the city.

"A place like Houndstooth is representative of how we're trying to curate this street," he says. "I think Dallas has been yearning for a real street, with cool retailers and restaurateurs."

Houndstooth is part of the "third wave" of coffee, wherein operators pay careful attention to details such as the source and grind of the coffee bean. It debuted in Austin in 2010, with a second branch that opened in April 2013. In July, Henry launched a coffee roasting side business, and he is using the beans in their stores as well as selling them to other shops and restaurants.

In addition to coffee, Houndstooth offers wine and craft beer, with rotating seasonal beers on tap.

Pearl Cup was an early settler on Henderson when it opened there five years ago. It has since opened two branches in downtown Dallas, including a kiosk in the Arts District, as well as a suburban outlet in Richardson. In 2012, owners Carlene Saelg and Rita Davis expressed their intent to open a location at Sylvan | Thirty, the mixed-use development in West Dallas.

Saelg said there were other plans for Pearl Cup's expansion that she would share at a later time.

Houndstooth joins other exciting new additions on Henderson such as Annie's Culinary Creations, a bakery going into the old V Spot space; Kim Hoegger Home, which recently opened next to Sissy's; and Gemma, a restaurant from husband-and-wife duo Stephen Rogers and Allison Yoder, formerly of Press in Napa. Both hope to open before the end of the year.

"We're not just wanting this to be a food and beverage street, but we're trying to create a diverse retail environment in which all the operators bring a point of difference to Henderson Avenue," Masinter says.